Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rear window structure with an alarm lamp wherein a holding member holding an alarm lamp is interposed between a gasket attached to a rear frame of a vehicle body and a peripheral portion of a rear window glass sheet.
Discussion of the Background
As an alarm lamp for a vehicle, in particular, for an automobile, there are a stop lamp, a direction indicator and so on for informing information to the rear side. As the stop lamp, a pair of stop lamps are usually provided at right and left sides of the tail portion of a vehicle. Further, in order to make the recognition of the stop, the deceleration or the like of a vehicle easy to a driver in a succeeding vehicle during driving, it has been known to mount a stop lamp or stop lamps at a lower portion or an upper portion of a rear window of the vehicle. Further, it has been known to mount a stop lamp on the surface of a rear portion of the cover of the rear trunk, i.e. a trunk lid. Such a style of mounting is referred to as a high mount stop lamp (HMSL), which is commercially available.
In the HMSL in a style wherein a stop lamp is located at a lower portion or an upper portion of the rear window, there has been known to attach the stop lamp at the cabin side with respect to the rear window, namely, at the inside of the vehicle as proposed in, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,774.
When the lamp is attached to the cabin side of the rear window, the attachment or removal of the stop lamp has to be conducted in a narrow space in the vehicle. Further, since the lamp has a certain volume, and there is an upper limit on the position of the lamp because of the rear edge portion of the vehicle roof, an effective space of the interior of the vehicle is narrow, and an eyesight to the backward and a view in the cabin are poor. Further, when the stop lamp is located at the cabin side, a light emitted from the lamp is caused to pass through the glass sheet of the rear window. Accordingly, the luminous intensity of the lamp has to be compensated because the effective luminous intensity is largely reduced.
Further a large current is needed at the time of turning on and off the lamp. In particular, the stop lamp and the direction indicator are frequently turned-on and off in the driving. Accordingly, a battery having a large capacity had to be provided, and power consumption of the battery is not negligible.
In a style wherein the stop lamp is mounted on the surface of the rear portion of the trunk lid, namely, the lamp is mounted at the outer side of the vehicle, the problem caused in a case that the lamp is attached at the cabin side of the vehicle does not take place. However, it is necessary to additionally provide an air spoiler to cover the stop lamp in order to prevent a wind pressure during the cruising, and an external force such as a shock by a pressure of brush at the time of washing the vehicle and atmospheric conditions such as wind and rain. The cost for providing the air spoiler is not negligible. Further, the provision of the air spoiler is not always satisfactory with respect to safeness (the air spoiler might be dropped during the driving) and the appearance of the vehicle.
In a conventional technique, the edge portion of the opening of a rear frame of a vehicle, especially, an automobile has been directly joined to a window material such as glass sheet, a plastic sheet or the like by using an adhesive at the edge portion of the opening of the rear frame of the automobile, or the edge portion of the opening of the rear frame is joined to the window material by interposing a gasket composed of rubber, a resilient plastic or the like. With respect to the later method of bonding the edge portion of the opening of the rear frame to the window material, the above-mentioned U.S. patent introduces an example that a stop lamp (HMSL) is attached to a gasket at an upper portion or a lower portion of a rear window at the inside of a vehicle. Namely, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 attached to this specification, when the HMSL is attached to the upper portion of the rear window at the inside of the vehicle, a lamp housing 16 is held between two brackets 19 which are extended downwardly with a space from an edge encapsulation member, i.e. the lamp housing 16 is attached to a gasket 18 itself made of a synthetic rubber-like plastic material. The lamp housing 16 is held by and secured to the gasket 18 by fitting projections 20 formed on both side walls of the lamp housing 16 to wedge-like recesses formed at an inner portions of the brackets 19 at positions corresponding to the projections 20. In FIG. 3 and 4, reference numeral 17 designates a glass sheet of rear window, numeral 21 designates a lens screen and numeral 22 designates a bulb.
The conventional rear window structure having the above-mentioned materials and the holding mechanism can only be satisfactory if the lamp housing 16 can be durable to vibrations caused in the driving and it is located at the cabin side free from an air resistance. In the conventional technique, the lamp housing 16 is supported by the gasket 18 made of a synthetic rubber-like plastic material. When the HMSL is attached to the outside of the rear window of the vehicle, the conventional rear window structure might not withstand to a strong wind pressure in the driving, and an external force such as a shock of the pressure of a brush at the time of washing the vehicle, and rain and wind. Accordingly, it is impossible for the conventional rear window structure to be provided at the outside of the vehicle. In this case, as described before, there are such problems of interfering a view of the backward of the vehicle, deteriorating the scene in the cabin and requiring a large luminous intensity for the lamp.